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Researchers at the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii have used data from the Hubble space telescope to find evidence of an ancient quasar in the void of space.

The quasar – a bright nucleus of energy at the center of galaxy formation – has the highest luminosity of any object recorded in the early universe. It’s burning brighter than 600 trillion suns.

The astronomers only came across it because of a galaxy in the foreground that acted as a gravitational lens – amplifying the ancient light from the quasar.

That light is 12.8 billion years old – it was created only a billion years after the big bang (Image: PA)

‘If it weren’t for this makeshift cosmic telescope, the quasar’s light would appear about 50 times dimmer,’ said Xiaohui Fan of the University of Arizona who led the study.

‘This discovery demonstrates that strongly gravitationally lensed quasars do exist despite the fact that we’ve been looking for over 20 years and not found any others this far back in time.’

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Quasars are powered by supermassive black holes that are believed to lie at the centre of each galaxy. These can have a mass that’s millions or billions the mass of the sun.

And this one is particularly old. The recorded image shows the quasar as it looked 12.8 billion years ago – only about 1 billion years after the big bang.

An artist’s impression showing how the quasar (J043947.08+163415.7) may look close up. (Image: PA)

‘This is one of the first sources to shine as the Universe emerged from the cosmic dark ages,’ said Jinyi Yang of the University of Arizona, another member of the discovery team.

‘Prior to this, no stars, quasars, or galaxies had been formed, until objects like this appeared like candles in the dark.’

According to the data, the quasar may be producing up to 10,000 stars a year and the supermassive black hole at its center is accreting matter at an extremely high rate. By comparison, the Milky Way produces about one new star a year.